When two or more developers work on a code file in parallel, the edits made by the developers to the code file may conflict with each other. For example, the developers may make different edits to the same section of the code file. As another example, edits made by a developer may introduce syntax errors into the code file if they are applied along with edits made by another developer.
In existing methods of addressing merge conflicts, edits made by a developer are typically checked for conflicts when that developer requests to merge the edited version of the code file with another version. However, if a merge conflict occurs after the developer has made extensive edits to the code file, reconciling those edits with edits made by other developers may be difficult and time-consuming.